This invention relates to collapsible prosthetic heart valves and valve anchoring systems for use in less invasive approaches to heart valve replacement (or at least effective replacement).
Prosthetic heart valves are known that can be circumferentially collapsed for delivery into a patient via means that are less invasive than full open-chest, open-heart surgery. When such a valve reaches the implant site in the patient, the valve circumferentially re-expands and becomes an operating valve implant in the patient.
A prosthetic valve of the type described above may need to include a number of concentric layers of material and structure. For example, such a valve typically includes flexible leaflets inside an annular frame structure. Additional layers of material may be needed for such purposes as buffering (protecting) the leaflets from excessive contact with the frame structure and/or promoting ingrowth of tissue from the patient's surrounding body tissue structures. The frame structure must be strong enough to securely hold the prosthetic valve in place at the implant site in the patient.
The above requirements for a strong structure and a structure that includes several concentric layers of material can be inconsistent with the desire to circumferentially collapse the prosthetic valve to a relatively small diameter for less invasive delivery into the patient.